Majority yes vote to marriage equality in Lyne

It was a majority yes vote for marriage equality in the federal seat of Lyne.

Statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that 55.3 per cent (51,416) of eligible voters in the electorate voted yes to the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey on legalising same-sex marriage, while 44.7 per cent (41,539) voted no.

Neighbouring electorates of Paterson and Cowper also had resounding yes results. In Paterson, 65.5 per cent (60,915) voted yes, and in Cowper it was 60 per cent.

Every single Australian state and territory voted yes to marriage equality, with NSW results showing 57.8 per cent voted yes and 42.2 per cent voted no.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) announced the results of the survey at 10am on November 15, with Australians voting in favour to the historic social change by a substantial margin of 61.6 per cent to 38.4 per cent.

Sixteen million eligible Australians on the Commonwealth Electoral Roll were asked whether or not the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry.

Of the 150 Federal Electoral Divisions, 133 recorded a majority Yes response, and 17 Federal Electoral Divisions recorded a majority No response.

Overall, 12,727,920 million people participated in the voluntary survey – representing 79.5 per cent of the more than 16 million eligible Australians.

Releasing the results, Australian Statistician, David W. Kalisch, said the participation rate was high for a voluntary survey.

“This high response rate far exceeds expectations and compares extremely favourably with other voluntary exercises conducted around the world thanks to the strong interest and engagement of eligible Australians in this topic,” he said.

The ABS had rigorous methods to avoid fraud, manage risks and protect the integrity and privacy of all responses.

“This combined with our efforts to ensure only one response was counted per eligible Australian, means Australians can have confidence these statistics reflect the country’s views.”

The detailed results published for national, states and territories and Federal Electoral Divisions are accompanied by a statement on the quality and integrity of the results.

“We’re grateful almost all respondents complied with the survey instructions and this enabled extremely accurate response coding, allowing us to quickly produce these results and complete all the requirements of the Treasurer’s Direction,” he said.

Mr Kalisch acknowledged the large number of agencies across Government and the private sector, including the Australian Electoral Commission, the Department of Human Services and Australia Post, that assisted the ABS to undertake this survey.

“With their help, the ABS conducted this survey to the standard expected by the community, and to meet the requirements of the Legal Direction from the Treasurer.

“In addition, while costs are still being tallied, the ABS is confident the final cost for the survey will be under $100 million, many million dollars less than the available budget,” he said.

The official statistics, including a count of responses (Yes, No and Response Not Clear) by Federal Electoral Division, State/Territory and National, are available from www.marriagesurvey.abs.gov.au/results